The Greater Augusta Arts Council is pleased to announce they have been selected to receive an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. The Arts Council is receiving $250,000 for distribution to eligible Arts non-profit organization and individual artists’ projects in the Greater Augusta community. These funds will go to recipients to help save jobs, fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation. In total, the NEA awarded grants totaling $20,200,000 to 66 local arts agencies nationwide for subgranting. In this round of awards, The Greater Augusta Arts Council is the only Georgia Agency to receive NEA’s American Rescue Plan funds for Re-Granting.

“The NEA’s significant investment in local arts agencies, including The Greater Augusta Arts Council, is a key element in helping the arts and culture sector recover and reopen, while ensuring that that American Rescue Plan funding is distributed equitably,” said Ann Eilers, NEA’s acting chair. “These grants recognize the vital role of local arts agencies and will allow them to help rebuild local economies and contribute to the well-being of our communities.”

The Arts Council will re-grant $150,000 to Arts Non-Profits in Richmond, Columbia and Aiken Counties for General Administration. A total of $50,000 will be re-granted to Individual Artists for Projects in 13 counties: Richmond, Columbia (GA), Aiken (SC) Burke, Glascock, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Taliaferro, Warren, and Wilkes (GA), Edgefield and McCormick (SC). The focus will be projects that help extend the Arts into our rural areas. The Greater Augusta Arts Council will use $50,000 of the grant funds to manage the Federal Grant, hire a project manager to ensure compliance with Federal Guidelines and ensure a deep reach into all the counties listed in the grant. Arts Organization Grant applications will be reviewed by an impartial Review Panel similar to the City Arts Grants. The Individual Artists’ Grants will be reviewed by The Arts Consortium, a group who administered the Covid-19 Artist Gig-Grants. The Arts Council expects the timeline for the Re-Granting application to open in February 2022, with fund disbursements by June 2022. Final reports would be due within six months of receiving awards.

 For more information about the part-time staff position to manage the Federal Grant for the Arts Council, contact Pax Bobrow at 706-826-4702.

This is the second of three installments of the NEA’s American Rescue Plan funding. The third installment of APR funding to arts organizations to support their own operations will be announced in early 2022.

For more information on the NEA’s American Rescue Plan grants, including the full list of local arts agencies funded in this announcement, visit www.arts.gov/COVID-19/the-american-rescue-plan.